


Justice for the dead and wary

by RachelDanna



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Character Insight, Dad Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, McReyes Week, Other, an overuse of the word justice, established mcgenji, focuses on gabe/jesse, mcreyes - Freeform, snippets of the relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 23:13:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8641999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RachelDanna/pseuds/RachelDanna
Summary: UPDATE! FIXED ERROR FOR WORD DETACHMENT. (25/11/16)Gabriel was warm. He was warm in the way his hands ruffled Jesse’s hair in amusement after falling asleep in the mess hall. The pat on the back after a grueling mission that had taken the lives of a few of his comrades. The firm hug to stop the pained yells when he had lost his arm. Gabriel was warm in the way he laughed, in the way he looked at Jesse and called him vaquero. This was the man that had saved a 17 year old kid (that didn’t know anything but to shoot between a person’s eyebrows) from a lifetime in jail. Gave him a second chance that Jesse still doesn’t know if he deserved.What was justice when it had treated Gabriel they way it did? What did justice ever do for Gabriel? All it did was create torment, made him into a being that could not die but continued to die anyway.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything in 6 months forgive the mistakes :') feedback and comments are VERY much appreciated 
> 
> Please note I tagged it as McReyes week but I am not following the prompts given for each of the days!

“To obtain justice, there must first be destruction.”

Gabriel Reyes told him that on the day of his very first mission. Jesse remembers his stone hard face as he said that, remembers the clench of his strong jaw and the firm grip around his weapons. He remembers the lectures Gabriel supplied him with, the do-s and don’t-s and to shoot a gun without his hands shaking.

Jesse remembers the face of the only father figure he had, and can’t help but grit his teeth and spit on the ground. More often than not, Jesse wonders what exactly did justice mean. He sees little Fareeha running around the combined sections of Blackwatch and Overwatch, giggling and loudly declaring that _I’m going to be solider like you one day, mama!_ to Ana. Ana would laugh, would pat her small head and say, _“Our little bundle of justice.”_

Jesse sees Genji in the younger days; back when Overwatch was still strong and not falling apart; sees the soft glow of his armour and the way he would lash out in anger from the discomfort of a skin that wasn’t his own. Back then, Jesse would hear his love yell and scream for justice. The occasional cry for revenge terrified him. Genji and revenge just didn’t sit well with him. But now? Now he sees Genji with his calm appearance, of peace and soft interactions with Hanzo. And that terrifies him more. Was justice to forgive? To let the anger go and to accept something that you couldn’t change? What changed? What did justice do to Genji that he forgave the brother that wrongly murdered him? When a kiss presents itself to him with scared and rough lips, he can’t help but feel anger towards the other Shimada. Where was the justice that Genji deserved?

Even so, justice was kind to Ana. Proven by the way she comes back to disbelieving and relieved tears. To a daughter that had grown and matured finely. To a daughter that had refused to accept the mother that had abandoned her to deliver the justice that she carried. Jesse watches his unrelated little sister’s face go stoic, shoulders tensing as she walks away from Ana, lip quivering and hair falling down to her face. He sighs, tilting his hat to hide his face before going after the girl. Too young, to understand that justice, presents itself in many ways.

After a long while at Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Jesse finally snaps. It was after he found out who Soldier:76 really is. Jack-Fucking-Morrison was in their midst and at that moment, he really could not give a damn that he was causing a commotion. He grabbed the man by his collar, spat in his face and managed to land a few good punches in before Genji himself had to pull him away. “Yer’ the one that started this!” Jesse yells, struggling in the arms of his lover, paying no heed to the pleads of Angela next to him to stop fighting. “Ya want justice?!” he breaks free of Genji’s grasp, and lunges at Jack once more, “I’ll give ya’ justice!” he snarls before starting a whole new series of kicks and punches. No one talked to either of them a few days after that, but Jesse honestly could not care less. Jack Morrison wasn’t in the wrong, but Jesse sure felt like it was. He took the promotion that was never his, took control of the people in Overwatch, took control of Gabriel too easily, too much, too soon.

It wasn’t a wonder all hell broke loose the day of the explosion.

Jesse regrets it. Leaving Blackwatch. Letting Gabriel defend for himself with no one he could trust. He was young, scared, didn’t want another life of working blindly for an organization that claimed they were the good guys. He was dumb as hell for leaving the place he could almost call home. His departure was not justified.

Which brings him back to his question. What was justice? Gabriel Reyes was man that didn’t put up with anyone’s bullshit. He was hard on his agents, yelled at them for being late, put them through training so tough it sent a few back to their quarters in tears. He was a man that left fear in his quake; the screams in the interrogation room was enough proof for that. Gabriel was a hard man, but he was also a caring one. He was the one that patched his agents up after a well fought battle, he was the one that made sure they were well rested, that they didn’t strain themselves from an emotional dam that suffocated almost everyone in their squad. Jesse included.

Above all, Gabriel was warm. He was warm in the way his hands ruffled Jesse’s hair in amusement after falling asleep in the mess hall. The pat on the back after a grueling mission that had taken the lives of a few of his comrades. The firm hug to stop the pained yells when he had lost his arm. Gabriel was warm in the way he laughed, in the way he looked at Jesse and called him _vaquero_. It was the late nights where Jesse finds himself unable to sleep due to nightmares that shook his soul that he remembered best. It was those nights that Gabriel would appear and hand him a mug of coffee before putting an arm over his shoulder and mumble quietly. “You’re alright _mijo_. You’re alright. No one’s gonna hurt you here, less they want to face me.” This was the man that had saved a 17 year old kid (that didn’t know anything but to shoot between a person’s eyebrows) from a lifetime in jail. Gave him a second chance that Jesse still doesn’t know if he deserved.

What was justice when it had treated Gabriel the way it did? What did justice ever do for Gabriel? All it did was create torment, made him into a being that could not die but continued to die anyway. Or was that Angela’s fault? Her fault for serving justice on a platter that couldn’t be received, bringing back those that was not meant to be brought back.

Angela should have left Gabriel for the dead.

It wasn’t that Jesse wished to see his mentor dead, it was that being dead was better than being what he was now. _Reaper_ he calls himself. Jesse couldn’t believe it when he first saw the man; smoke trailing after him and the stench of rotting flesh and old blood. This man was not the Gabriel he was fighting to save. This man was filled with hatred and anger, built up from the years of injustice.

_To obtain justice, there must first be destruction._

Jesse remembers those words well. It wouldn’t stop repeating itself in his head the moment he accepted the recall from Winston. Destruction. Gabriel had talked about destruction. There was meaning behind Gabriel’s words, a meaning that each person interpreted differently. He faces Reaper now, a terrible knockoff of who his saviour was and can’t help but think of the justice that Gabriel deserved; that Reaper didn’t.

Jesse faces Reaper now, no longer the Gabriel Reyes that he once knew and loved, and feels his resolve harden. If justice was what Gabriel needs, it’s justice that he will get.

With Peacekeeper in his hand, he lifts his head up to face the world with a new found sense of what justice really is. Reloading the gun and dropping the cigarillo to the ground, he stands firm with his team.

 

_“Justice ain’t gonna dispense itself.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes, justice just means to save the one that you love. 
> 
> *vaquero - cowboy  
> mijo - son


End file.
